What Scotland’s builders are talking about: wages, workloads and materials

The Merchants House of Glasgow was a fine venue for your Scotland Board’s final meeting of 2025. The board is comprised of 14 Scotland based members: all elected by fellow Scottish members. They regularly meeting to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing builders across Scotland. As a collective voice of members, the Board provides invaluable insights and recommendations to the FMB. I am very grateful for their support and advice.

Ryan Gilluley who runs Gilluley Cost Management Ltd presented about how he helps members on contract reviews, contract administration, cashflow and claims.

Members then discussed a range of matters, highlights being:

• The increases to the apprentice and national minimum wages announced in the UK budget.
• Current workloads and pipeline of works in their areas for 2026.
• CITB’s decision to cease the funding for all training groups.
• Materials availability and quality: with timber being a concern for all.

Join us for Breakfast: either in Edinburgh or Kilmarnock

I then confirmed that we have two events for members early in 2026. One is a Builders’ Breakfast at Jewson in Kilmarnock on 29 January. On 3 February builders and architects will come together for breakfast at the RIAS office in Edinburgh. Booking details are here.

Now the FMB hosted our first reception at the Scottish Parliament last month. Government Minister Ben Macpherson joining us to hear about our priorities for local building companies. Since then, I’ve been back to the Scottish Parliament for events hosted by the RIAS and Homes for Scotland.  With MSPs, Ministers including Cabinet Secretary for Housing Màiri McAllan MSP attending I took the opportunity to highlight the key asks in our Builders’ Manifesto for 2026.

Free support for members from the DWP

The Department for Work and Pensions in Scotland (DWP) reached out to me to brief me on the free support that jobcentres can provide to businesses. 70% of employers being unaware of what’s available, which includes:

• Find a job: employers can advertise vacancies for free
• Local employer advisors
• Employer services line
• Jobcentre events and facilities

If you have feedback on the DWP’s services please get in touch. They are keen to engage with the FMB in Scotland and are keen to hear back from small employers in the construction sector.

My thanks to member True Build Trade Services for hosting me at a recent site visit. Especially during the pre-Christmas rush, with their clients wanting to move back into their much enhanced home before Christmas.

If you are willing to host me for a site visit in 2026, just reach out to me. In this fast-moving digital age, face to face conversations with members continue to be invaluable.

Authors

Gordon Nelson

FMB Scotland Hub Director, Federation of Master Builders

Director, Federation of Master Builders Scotland

Gordon has nearly twenty years’ experience of working in membership organisations in Scotland and joined the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in 2014. Prior to this, he worked at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and for Unilever in business development, membership management and business-to-business marketing roles. Amongst his responsibilities in his role as the Director for FMB Scotland are public affairs, media relations, governance and representing member’s interests to Scottish policy makers and stakeholders within the Scottish construction industry. Gordon is the Secretary of the Cross-Party Group on Construction in the Scottish Parliament, and he is a member of the Scottish Building Standards Futures Board. Gordon represents the FMB on Scotland’s Construction Industry Collective Voice: which is comprised of the leading construction trade and professional bodies. In spring 2023 Gordon was appointed as an industry co-chair of the Construction Leaderships Forum’s (CLF) Transformation Board.

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